Electrical arc welding wherein two elongated members are butt welded to one another is known in the art. Elongated members, such as railroad rails, are complex in cross-sectional configuration and for this reason the employment of metal powder in a sintering or fusion process is difficult to carry out because the resultant product is not likely to be of uniform cross-section. Continuous lengths of rail are known, and have advantageously been employed in the past. The prior art sets forth various different apparatus and processes for butt welding elongated members, some of which utilize powder metal to fill the void between confronting rail ends.
The present invention is directed to method and apparatus which overcome many of the drawbacks found in the prior art.